Saint-Martin,

The French Mystic and
the Story of Modern Martinism

By Arthur Edward Waite

CHAPTER I

THE GREAT DAY OF
SAINT-MARTIN

DURING the second half of the eighteenth
century it may be said without exaggeration that the intellectual, historical
and political centre of all things was in the kingdom of France. The statement
obtains not only because of the great upheaval of revolution which was to
close the epoch, but because of the activities which prepared thereto. I know
not what gulfs dispart us from the scheme and order of things signified by the
name of Voltaire, by Diderot and the Encyclopaedists at large, or what are the
points of contact between the human understanding at this day and that which
was conceived by Condorcet in his memorable treatise. But about the import and
consequence of their place and time I suppose that no one can question. The
same land and the same period were the centre also of occult activities and
occult interests, which I mention at once because they belong to my subject,
at least on the external side, since it happens quite often that where
occultism is about on the surface there is mysticism somewhere behind. We may
remember in this connection that a Christian mystical influence had been
carried over in France from the last years of the seventeenth century through
certain decades which followed: it was that of Port Royal, Fenelon and Madame
Guyon, owing something - almost unawares - to the Spanish school of Quietism,
as this in its turn reflected, without being aware of the fact, from
preReformation sources.

As regards occult activities, if I say that their seeds were sown prior to
1750, it will be understood that I am speaking of developments which were
characteristic in a particular manner of the years that followed thereon.
Occultism is always in the world, and among the French people especially there
has been always some disposition to be drawn in this direction. In the
eighteenth century, however, the sources for the most part are not to be found
in France. The persuasive illuminations of Swedenborg the deep searchings of
Jacob Bohme into God, man and the universe, the combined theosophy and magic
represented by earlier and later kabalism, and a strange new sense of the
Mysteries coming out from a sleep of the centuries with the advent of
Symbolical Freemasonry these and some others with a root of general likeness
were foreign in respect of their origins, but they found their homes in France.
So also were certain splendid historical adventurers who travelled in the
occult sciences, as other merchants travel in the wares of the normal
commercial world. I refer of course to Saint-Germain and Cagliostro, but they
are signal examples or types, for they did not stand alone. There were men
with new gospels and revelations of all kinds; there were alchemists and magi
in the byways, as well as on^ the public roads and in the King's palaces.
Perhaps above all there were those who travelled in Rites, meaning Masonic
Rites, carrying strange charters and making claims which had never been heard
of previously in the age-long chronicle of occult things.

When one comes to reflect upon it, the great, many-sided Masonic adventure may
be said to stand for the whole, to express it in the world of signs, as
actually and historically speaking there came a day, beforethe French
Revolution, when it seemed about to absorb the whole. All the occult sciences,
all the ready-made evangels, all philosophies, the ever-transpiring new births
in time ceased to be schemes on paper and came to be embodied in Grades.

So also the past, though it may be thought to have buried its dead, began to
give them back to the Rites, and not as sheeted ghosts, but as things so truly
risen and so much affirming life that they denied their own death and even
that they had fallen asleep. Of such was the Rosy Cross. It came about in this
manner that our Emblematical Institution, which was born, so to speak, at an
AppIe- Tree Tavern and nursed in its early days at the Rummer and Grapes or
the Goose and Gridiron, may be said to have passed through a second birth in
France. It underwent otherwise a great transformation, was clothed in gorgeous;
vestments and decorated with magnificent titles. It contracted in like manner
the adornment of innumerable spiritual marriages, which were fruitful in
spiritual progeny. I have pronounced its encomillm elsewhere and that of the
Rites and Grades, the memorable Orders and Chivalries which came thus into
being. (1) More numerous still were the foster sons and daughters, being
things connected with Masonry but not belonging thereto, even in the widest
sense of its Emblematic Art. Of illegitimate children by scores, things of
rank imposture or gross delusion, I do not need to speak. It is sufficient to
say that Holy Houses of Masonry were everywhere in the land of France, and
everywhere also were its royal standards unrolled. There is no question, from
one point of view, that all the claims belonged to a world of dreams, that
from old-world history they drew only its fables, from antique science its
myths, that the dignities conferred in proceedings were delivered in a glass
of faerie, and that the emblazoned programmer of high intent and purpose were
apt to fade strangely and seem written in invisible ink under the cold light
of fact. But the reality behind the dreams must be sought in the spirit of the
dreamers, for whom something had happened which opened all the the doors and
unfolded amazing vistas of possibility on every side about them.

The man who held the keys and indeed had forged them was no other than
Voltaire, who in this connection stands of course for an intellectual movement
at large, which movement meant emancipation from the fetters of thought and
action. To summarise the situation in a sentence, apart from the Church and
its dogma, all things looked possible for a moment. The peculiar Masonic "system
of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols," might lead
humanity either back to the perfection which it had lost or forward to that
which it desired and could in mind descry dimly, however far away. The new
prophets and their vaunted revelations might have God behind their gospels,
and the darkness of the occult sciences might veil unknown Masters, rather
than emissaries of perdition. Condemned practices, forbidden arts might lead
through clouds of mystery into light of knowledge, and in this light history
might call to be written out anew. We know at this day that Masonic legends
are matters of fond invention, but some of them are old at the root, and we
can understand in the eighteenth century how they came to pass as fact, more
especially since the root of some was a Secret Tradition in Israel. When it
came about, under cirellmstances which cannot be recited here, that Masonic
attention was drawn to the old Order of Knights Templar, which had been
brought to the rack and the faggot as possessors of a strange knowledge drawn
from the East, a Rite or a budget of Rites which claimed that the Order had
never passed out of being was like a fortune to those who devised.

It is from this point of new that we must survey the amazing growth of Masonry
in all its multitude of forms. We shall conclude that it was pursued zealously,
with a heart turned towards the truth, and as one who believes that he may not
stand alone, I am not unprepared to think that some of the traditional
histories, to us as monstrous growths, represented to the makers their views
on the probability of things presented in the guise of myth. It was saved in
this manner for them from the common charge of fraud. This is my judgment of
the time, and there is one thing more on the wonderside of the subject, the
expectations and the vistas seen in front. As the time drew on for Voltaire to
be called away and when the chief High Grades of Masonry connoted a reaction
from much that is typified by his name, there rose up another personality
holding one key only, but it looked like clavis abeconditorum a constitutione
mundi. This was Anton Mesmer, prominent in Parisian circles, a Mason like the
rest of them, and destined presently to have more than one Grade enshrining
his discovery and designed for the spread of its tenets. Granting the fact of
his unseen but vital fluid, there was a root of truth at least in the long
past of Magia, in the entrancements of vestal and pythoness, above all in
occult medicine. So opened some other doors, and when Puysegur discovered
clairvoyance again as it might be for a moment - the mystery of all the
hiddenness looked on the point of unveiling. But the doors shut suddenly, the
dreams and the epoch closed in the carnage of the French Revolution, and
thereafter rose the baleful cresset of Corsica.

I have dwelt upon French Freemasonry because it is impossible to pass over it
in presenting a picture of the period, but more especially because the life of
the mystic Saint-Martin is bound up therewith for a certain number of years.
Among the Rites which mattered at the moment his name connects with two, being
the glory of the Strict Observance and the problematical Order of Elect
Priesthood.(1) Behead the first there lies the mystery of its Unknown
Superiors, but this, when reduced to its equivalent in simple fact, means the
circumstances under which and the people by whom its root-matter was
communicated in France to Baron von Hund, who returned with it to his German
Fatherland and there formed it into a Rite, whoss advent marked an epoch for
evermore ill Masonry. But in respect of the second there lies behind it the
claim of Pasqually's apostolate in that for which it stood and whence, if from
anywhere, he derived on has own part - as, for example, the Rosy Cross. I
cannot trace here the history of the Strict Observance: it claimed to
represent a perpetuation in secret of the Knights Templar and to be ruled by a
hidden headship appertaining to that source. It may almost be said that it
took Masonic Germany by storm, and planted its banners triumphantly all over
Europe, save only in those British Isles where the Art and Craft of Emblematic
Freemasonry rose up in 1717 among the taverns of London. It fell to pieces
ultimately because it was in no better position to prove its claims than was
the Craft itself to justify its recurrent appeals to the hoary past. But the
point which concerns, us is that before its karma overtook it the Rite was
domiciled in France and had headquarters at Lyons under the government of a
Provincial Grand Prior of Auvergne. It was transformed under these auspices
from a Holy House of the Temple into a Spiritual House of God, in the keeping
of a sacred chivalry pledged to the work of His glory and the promotion of
peace on earth among all men of goodwill. It is the Apex of Masonry or the
diadem of this Daughter of the Mysteries.

As regards Martines de Pasqually and his Rite des Elus Coens, or Order of the
Elect Priesthood, he would seem to have been of Spanish descent or extraction,
though he was born in Grenoble, and he is said to have been a coach-builder by
trade - a piece of information which comes, however, from a hostile source. It
may stand at its value and in any case does not signify, for it must be
admitted, I believe, that he was of comparatively humble origin, and has
extant letters swarm with orthographical errors, all has intellectual gifts
notwithstanding and also has spiritual dedications. Whatever has been said to
the contrary, it is quite certain - so far as there is endence before us that
he emerged into the light of his Masonic career for the first time in 1760 and
that the place was Toulouse, where he presented himself at a certain Lodge,
bearing a hieroglyphic charter and laying claim to occult powers. A year later
he emerged again at Bordeaux where he appears to have been recognized on his
own terms by another Lodge, which he had satisfied in respect of has claims.
In 1766 he proceeded to Paris and there laid the foundations of a Sovereign
Tribunal, which included several prominent Masons. He was again at Bordeaux:
in 1767, and three years later there are said to have been Lodges of his Rite
not only at that city but at Montpellier, Avignon, La Rochelle and Metz, as
well as at Paris and Versailles. The Temple at Lyons was founded a little
later.

Such is the external story of the Rite in bare outline, up to the time when
for my present purpose - it can be merged in that of Saint-Martin. And now as
to that for which it stood. I have intimated that Martines de PasqualIy
pretended to occult powers, and that there was at least one Lodge which held
that he had proved his claim. I shall show later on the extent of our present
Imowledge respecting the content of his Rite. It had a certain ceremonial
procedure, which - like all Ritual - must have been sacramental in character,
or with a certain meaning implied by its modes and forms; but only to the
least extent was it otherwise veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.
On the contrary, it was concerned with the communication of a secret doctrine
by way of direct instruction and with a practice which must be called secret
in the ordinary sense which attaches to the idea of occult art or science. The
kind of practice was that which endeavours to establish communication with
unseen intelligence by the observances of Ceremonial Magic. There was
procedure of this kind in the course of the Grades, or of some at least among
them, and Pasqually, the Grand Sovereign, was also Grand Magus or Operator. It
will be seen in a word that the Rite of Elect Priesthood had a very different
undertaking in hand from anything embraced by the horizon of Craft Masonry or
the rank and file of High Grades. The doctrine embodied a particular view
concerning the Fall of Man and of all animated things belonging to the
material order, it looked for the restoration of all, and on man as the
divinely appointed agent of that great work to come.

CHAPTER II

EARLY LIFE OF THE MYSTIC

LOUIS CLAUDE DE SAT MARTIN belonged to the
French nobility, as indicated by has armorial bearings and the coronet
superposed thereon, but I have not come across his genealogy in any extant
memorial. He was described very often in the past, and even by early French
biographers, as the Marquis de Saint-Martin, but this is a mistake and has
been rectified some time since: it does not appear that there was any title in
has branch of the family. Though he suffered little inconvenience when the
French Revolution came, he was included among the proscribed, meaning the
noble classes. He was of Touraine stock, and was born at Amboise in that
district on January 18, 1743. It is said that his mother died soon after and
that the father married again. We have his own evidence that filial respect
was a sacred sentiment of his infancy; that all his happiness was perhaps due
to has stepmother; that her teaching inspired him with love for God and man;
and that the intercourse of their minds took place in perfect freedom. (1)
There are various indications of his delicacy in early years, as when he tells
us that he changed skins seven times in babyhood; that has body was a rough
sketch; that he had very little "astral," meaning psychic force; that he could
play passably on the violin, but that owing to physical weakness his fingers
could not vibrate with sufficient power to make a cadence. (1) I mention these
points to show that, albeit Saint-Martin attained a fair age, he seems to have
been always physically frail, amidst great mental activities. For the rest,
there is no need to dwell upon his youth, as regards external facts, nor have
many transpired. He was educated at the college of Pont-Leroy, was designed
for the career of the law and entered thereupon, but it proved so entirely
distasteful that his father allowed him to exchange it for the profession of
arms, he being then about twenty-two years of age.

On the inward side, or as regards his early dedications, we have the benefit
of his own intimations, too brief and few as they are. There is a work of the
past, by a writer named Abadie, on The Art of Self-Knowledge, and though on my
own part I have not brought away from it any striking recollections, it had a
certain repute in its day. Saint-Martin tells us that he read it with delight
in his youth, though he recognized later that it was characterised by
sentiment rather than depth of thought. It was instrumental probably ill
disposing him towards the life of contemplation and the following of the
mystic path. There was also Burlamaqui, to whom he says that he owed his love
for the natural basis of reason and human justice. So far as regards books,
but beyond these there were the promptings of his own spirit, and in respect
of these he tells us (1) that at the age of eighteen, amidst all the
confusions of philosophy, he had attained certitude as to God and his own soul;
(2) that the seeker for wisdom had need of nothing more; (3) that the
foundation of all his happiness must be in contentment only with the truth;
(4) that absorption in material things was incomprehensible for those who knew
the treasures of reason and the spirit; (5) that human science explained
matter by matter, and that after its putative proofs there were other
demonstrations needed; (6) that the inmost prayer of his soul was for God to
abide therein to the exclusion of all else, in which manner he came to see,
thus early, that Divine Union is the true end of man; for I find this further
thought set down as belonging to has first spiritual years, namely, (7) that
we are all widowed and that we are called to a second marriage.

The influence of the Duc de Choiseul secured a commission for Saint-Martin in
the regiment of Foix. The next three years of his life, which are practically
a blank, so far as memorials are concerned, have been filled up by biographers,
following on obvious lines and those of least resistance. His occupations, in
a word, were the duties of his profession and the study of religious
philosophy. There is of course no question, and so far from the life of a
soldier offering any barrier to his dedications, they opened a path before him
which he followed with advantage for a certain distance and remembered his
experience therein with unfailing affection and reverence. As we learn by his
correspondence, Martines de Pasqually had married the niece of a retired major
in the regiment of Foix, and he was known personally by the brother-officers
of Saint- Martin, De GrainvilIe among others, and in the end by Saint-Martin
himself. De Grainville, De Balzac and Du Guers were initiates of the Elect
Priesthood, and at some uncertain date between August 13 and October 2, 1768,
Saint-Martin was received into the Order. According to his own testimony he
had taken the first three Grades en bloc, apparently by verbal communication.
They were conferred on him by M. de Balzac. (1) There is no record as to how
they impressed him, but among several references to the Grand Sovereign of the
Rite on the part of his disciple for a period there is one which appertains
more especially to the initial stage of their connection. "It is to Martines
de Pasqually," says Saint-Martin, "that I owe my introduction to the higher
truths." (1a) This sentence was written either on the eve of the Revolution or
soon after, and having regard to the spiritual distance travelled already by
the witness it is pregnant testimony.

As regards the Ritual-content of the Elect Priesthood, we know certainly about
seven Grades, being (1) Apprentice Elect Priest; (2) Companion Elect Priest;
(3) Particular Master Elect Priest; (4) Master Elect Priest; (5) Grand Master
Priests, otherwise Grand Architects; (6) Grand Elects of Zerubbabel; and (7) a
Grade of Rose Croix, not otherwise and more fully particularized, though it is
a subject of frequent allusion in the correspondence of Martines de Pasqually
and SaintMartin. In the year 1895 Papus, otherwise Dr. Gerard Encausse,
testified that the "Rituals of the Elect Priests," with other numerous and
important archives, had been transmitted as follows: (1) To J.B. Willermoz, a
merchant of Lyons, circa 1782. He was one of the successors of Pasqually and
Grand Prior of Auvergne in the Strict Observance. (2) From Willermoz to his
nephew. (3) From this nephew to his widow. (4) From her to M. Cavernier, an
unattached student of occultism. There are other documents held by the
descendants of M. Jacques Matter, one of the early and most competent
biographers of Saint-Martin. By the mediation of M. Elie Steel, a bookseller
of Lyons, Papers was placed in communication with Cavernier, and was enabled
to copy "the principal documents." (1a) Whether these included the Rituals
does not appear, nor is it possible to indicate the present locality of the
originals. It is certain, however, that Papus transcribed the Catechisms
attached to six out of the seven Grades, as he published them at the date
mentioned, (2a) and I have full evidence also that he conferred the Grade of
Rose Crois on at least one occasion, some years subsequently, as we shall see
more particularly at the close of the present monograph.

In the absence of the Rituals, which have never been printed, while I have
failed to find manuscript copies in England, either in private hands or in any
Masonic or other library, our available knowledge of the Grades is confined to
the Catechisms and to the correspondence mentioned above. I will take these
sources separately, as the first is concerned with the doctrine and symbolism
of the Rite, and the second with its peculiar practices. (1) Apprentice Elect
Priest. - The instruction of this Grade imparted perfect knowledge - en
hypothesi - on the existence of the Grand Architect of the Universe, on the
principle of man's spiritual emanation and on has direct correspondence with
his Master. It is obvious that the knowledge in question was conveyed
dogmatically. As regards the origin of the Order, it derived from the Creator
himself and had been perpetuated from the days of Adam, that is to say, from
Adam to Noah, from Noah to Melchisedek, and afterwards to Abraham, Moses,
Solomon, Zerubbabel and Christ. The meaning is that there has been always a
Secret Tradition in the world, and its successive epochs are marked by
successive custodians. It is in this sense also that the purpose of the Order
is said to be the maintenance of man in his primeval virtue, his spiritual and
divine powers. (2) Companion Elect Priest. - Having been told of our "first
estate" in the previous Degree, the Candidate hears in the next concerning the
Fall of Man and personifies it in his own case. He has passed from the
perpendicular to the triangle, or from union with his First Principle to the
triplicity of material things. The Grade of Companion typifies this transition.
The Candidate is engaged to counteract the work of the Fall, in which has own
spirit has been undone, and his whole world is in travail thereupon, to "acquire
the age of perfection." The root of all is in a living realization of what is
implied by the first estate of man, his ambition, his lapse and his punishment.
There is one allusion to the pouring out of a more than human blood, but this
subject is reserved to some later stage of advancement in the Order. (3)
Particular Master Elect Priest. In the conventional symbolism, the Candidate
passes from the triangle to the circles: he is at work in the circles of
expiation, which are said to be six and in correspondence with six conceptions
employed by the Great Architect in constructing the Universal Temple. The
symbolism of the Temple of Solomon is explained in this Degree, and its
members are called to the practice of charity, good example and all duties of
the Order, for the reintegration of their individual principles, their Mercury,
Sulphur and Salt, in that unity of Divine Principles from which they first
came forth. Here is the only distinct Hermetic reference found in the
memorials of the Rite. (4) Elect Master. - The Candidate enters the circle of
reconciliation, and in common with his peers is engaged henceforward in
warfare with the enemies of Dinne Law and of man at large on earth. We hear
also, but vaguely, concerning One Who is the Elect of God, Who has reconciled
earth with man and all with the Grand Architect of the Universe. It is to be
noted that in references of this kind we are left to infer that the Reconciler
is Christ, for He is not mentioned by name. The Resurrection of Easter morning
is referred to in similarly unprecise terms, and so also the sacrifice on
Calvary. It transpires, however, that the warfare of the Grade is against the
enemies of the Christian Religion. The initiations and adornments of Craft
Masonry have been stigmatised as apocryphal in the first Grade, and yet they
were sufficiently essential to be conferred invariably in summary form on
every Candidate for the Elect Priesthood - presumably in cases where they had
not been taken previously. In the Grade of Elect Master he is warned to cut
himself of from all clandestine secret societies, communicating apocryphal
instructions, which are " contrary to Divine Law and to the Order." (5) Grand
Master Priests, surnamed Grand Architects. - The Candidate was thirty-three
years old in the fourth Grade and he has now attained the age of eighty. It
would seem that he receives some kind of ordination. It is a Grade of light
and the Temple is ablaze with light. There are four Wardens, who represent the
four symbolical Angels of the four quarters of heaven, recalling the occult
mystery of the Enochian Tablets, according to the memorials of Dr. John Dee in
The Faithful Relation. The ordination whatever its form - is said to be
operated by the thought and will of the Eternal, and by the power, word and
intention of His deputies. The members of this Grade are occupied with the
purification of their physical senses so that they may participate in the work
of the spirit. They are engaged otherwise in constructing new Tabernacles and
rebuilding old. There are said to be four kinds of Tabernacles in the
Universal Temple, being (1) the body of man, (2) the body of woman, (3) the
Tabernacle of Moses, and (4) that of the Sun, or the "temporal spiritual"
Tabernacle which the Great Architect of the Universe "has destined to contain
the sacred names and words of material and spiritual reaction, distinguished
by wisdom as by a torch of universal temporal life." There is no further
allusion to this Spiritual Sun. The Candidate now hears the Name of Christ,
apparently for the first time in his progress through the Rite. It must be
said that the Catechisms are rather obscure documents, and inferences drawn
therefrom as to procedure in the Rituals are therefore precarious, but it
would seem that the Candidate in this Degree begins to take part in those
magical operations which are the chief concern of the Rite, as we shall see.
(6) Grand Elect of Zerubbabel. - The Prince of the People is represented as a
type of Christ and his work as typical of redemption. In the Masonic Grade
known as the Royal Arch the Candidate testifies that he belongs to the tribe
of Judah, but a Grand Elect on the contrary protests against such an
imputation. He is of the tribe of Ephraim, described as (1) that which has
always enjoyed freedom, and (2) the last of the tribes of Israel but the first
of the Elect. His earthly age is defined to be seventy years, while that of
his spiritual election is seven. The seventy years of captivity are those of
material life, or life apart from election and from the ordination of true
priesthood. The election attained by the Candidate imposes on him the
spiritualization of his material passions, the conquest of the enemies of
truth and those also of liberty. His rank is friend of God, protector of
virtue and professor of truth. It is to be noted that he has had no part in
the building of the Second Temple, because it was a type only of that Temple
of our humanity which none but the Spirit can rebuild. This being so, it is
difficult to see why members of the Grade are called Grand Elects of
Zerubbabel. (7) Grade of Rose Croix - particulars of which are wanting, as
already seen, there being no Catechism extant. But the true Rose Croix is of
Christ, and without it Pasqually's Rite would have been left at a loose end,
for it looked through all its Grades to that Divine Event which ushered in the
Christian Era.

In the above enumeration respecting the content of the Rite I have taken its
Catechisms as my gliide, but it remains to add that there is some confusion on
the subject. A letter of the Grand Sovereign has been quoted under date of
June 16, 1760, in which the Grades are set out according to the following list:
(1) Apprentice, (2) Companion, (3) Particular Master, (4) Grand Elect Master,
(5) Apprentice Priest, (6) Companion Priest, (7) Master Priest, (8) Grand
Master Architect. (1a) To these Ragon added a Grade of Knight Commander, (2a)
which Papus seeks to identify with that of Rose Crois. I find no trace of the
letter in published Pasqually memorials, and the date is certainly wrong. As
regards Ragon, his mammoth lists of Degrees, Rites and Orders are utterly
uncritical, but the fact that in this case he produces an enumeration which is
corroborated somewhere in the unpublished correspondence of the Grand
Sovereign may justify us in thinking that there is authority for the ninth
item and that the entire scheme may have represented an early state of
Pasqually's Masonic plan. There is in any case the fullest evidence that his
Rite was at work when several of its Ceremonies were only in an embryonic
stage. I observe also that in a letter of SaintMartin dated May 20, 1771, (1a)
there is reference to a Degree under the initials G.R., which corresponds to
no title extant in either scheme, as it is certainly not Rose Croix, this
being always represented by R (picture of Cross) in Saint-Martin's
correspondence. Amidst variations and uncertainties, we are, I think,
justified in regarding the Grade-Names at the head of the several Catechisms
as those appertaining to the Rite in its completed form.

On the surface of these documents there is nothing to suggest that the Grades
to which they are attributed were connected with Ceremonial Magic. They belong
to the part of doctrine and the part also of symbolism, the latter including
official secrets signs, tokens, words and similar accidents of purely Masonic
convention. For the practical part we must have recourse to the correspondence
of Pasqually (2a) and - as it may seem, perhaps curiously to that of
Saint-Martin. The letters of both were addressed to Jean-Baptiste Willermoz,
the merchant of Lyons, who appears to have held the rank of Inspector- General
in 1767, though more than a year later he is denominated Apprentice Rose Croix:
it would seem therefore that the jurisdiction implied by the broader title
could have been exercised only over lower Grades of the Order. On August 13,
1768, the Grand Sovereign began to instruct Willermoz in occult or magical
procedure, and continued to do so at long intervals until 1772, the
communications in all being ten in number, so far as they have become
available in published works. The operations imposed were to be performed by
Willermoz in the solitude of a private room, and have therefore nothing to do
with ceremonial observance in Lodge or Temple. The practice in these - for it
appears that there was a practice - seems to have been performed by Pasqually
himself, looking forward presumably to that time when some of his disciples
would have developed occult powers under his tuition and would be qualified to
operate on their own part in public, so to speak, with some assurance of
success.

The Ceremonial Magic was Christian and presupposed throughout the efficacy of
religious formulae consecrated from time immemorial by the usage of the Latin
Church. The instructions reduced into summary form may be presented thus: (1)
The Novice was covenanted to abstain from flesh meat, apparently of all kinds,
for the rest of has life. (2) As an Apprentice Rose Croix he was forbidden
occult work except for three days in succession at the beginning of either
equinox, meaning three days before the full moon of March and September. (3)
As regards spiritual preparation, he must recite the Office of the Holy Spirit
every Thursday at any hour of the day; the Miserere mei, standing in the
centre of the room at night before retiring, facing East; and the De Profundis
on both knees and with face bowed to the ground. (4) The clothing prescribed
is elaborate, including all insignia of the Order that the Novice was entitled
to wear, but here it will be sufficient to say that as he must be deprived of
all metals, even pins, he removed his ordinary clothing except vest, drawers,
socks and felt slippers. Over these he placed a white alb, with broad flame-coloured
borders. (5) He described the segment of a circle on the East side of the room
and a complete circle of retreat on the West side, placing the proper
inscriptions at the proper points, with the symbols and wax tapers. (6) These
arrangements completed, he prostrated himself at full length within the
western circle in complete darkness, for a space of six minutes, after which
he arose and lighted all the tapers belonging to that circle. (7) He then
prostrated himself within the eastern segment, pronouncing one of the Names
inscribed thereon and supplicating God, in virtue of the power given to His
servants here reciting all the inscribed angelic names - to grant that which
was desired by the Novice with humble and contrite - heart. (8) The Novice
again rose up and performed other operations, including the lose of a
particular kind of incense and the recital of certain invocations which are
not given in the text. (9) The operation was to last one hour and a half,
onward from midnight, no food having been taken since noon. There are other
directions, not always in harmony with those which preceded, but the
instruction is left unfinished, and as regards these initial operations we do
not know what purpose they served or what manifestations characterised success
therein.

About two years later Pasqually supplied further directions of a more advanced
or at least more elaborate kind, the circle of retreat being now located in
the centre of the room; but again the procedure depends on particulars which
have been sent previously and the nature of which is unknown. We hear also of
visions, described as white, blue, clear ruddy white, and so forth; of visible
sparks, of goose-flesh sensations, as of things seen and felt by mere novices
of the Order. As to purpose, however, and result there is still nothing that
transpires, except indeed the complete failure of Willermoz to obtain any
satisfaction. The letters of Saint-Martin to the same correspondent on the
same subject may be said practically to begin as those of Pasqually ended, and
they are models of clear exposition, compared with those of the Grand
Sovereign. (1a) They endeavour in the first place to encourage Willermoz and
dissuade him from supposing either that he is himself to blame or that the
occult ceremonies are invalid. At an early stage one of them was accompanied
by "the grand ceremonial" of the Grand Architects, a complete plan of this
Grade and a prayer or invocation for daily use. We hear also of a "simple form
of ordination" under the initiats G.R., to which I have alluded previously; of
extended and reduced versions of some Grades; of Elect and Priestly Grades.
There are references to Latin originals of certain workings; to procedure with
Candidates, on their reception as Grand Architects, evidently magical in
character; forms of conjuration and exorcism of evil spirits which do not
differ generically from those of historical Rituals; and much on the formation
of circles, with their proper modes of inscription. These things do not extend
our knowledge, except upon points of detail, and after midsummer, 1773, the
character of the correspondence changes. Saint-Martin had supplied for a
period the place, as it were, of a secretary to his occult Master, but
Pasqually was called to St. Domingo in 1772 on "temporal business" of his own
and was destined never to return.

It follows that the Ceremonial Magic of the Elect Priesthood is by no means
fully available from published sources; but so far as the procedure is before
us it does not differ, as I have intimated, from the common records of the art
except as these records differ one from another. This being the case, and as
most of us are acquainted with the preposterous concerns of Art Magic in the
past, we have, in the next place, to account as we can for an opinion on has
early school expressed by Saint-Martin long after he had abandoned it and all
its ways: "I will not conceal from you that in the school through which I
passed, now more than twenty-five years ago, communications of all kinds were
numerous and frequent, that I had my share in these like all the others, and
that every sign indicative of the Repairer was found therein." (1a) He said
also: "There were precious things in our first school, and I am even disposed
to believe that M. Pasqually, to whom you allude and who, since it must be
said, was our Master, had the active key of all that our dear Bohme sets forth
in his theories, but that he did not regard us as fitted for such high truths."
(2a) In the peculiar terminology of Saint- Martin, the Repairer signified
Christ, and what therefore were those "communications" obtained as the result
of invocations recited in magical circles drawn with chalk on the floor and
inscribed, as in the devices of old sorcery, with more or less unintelligible
names? After what manner precisely did they manifest or at least indicate the
presence of Christ? For an answer to these questions we depend on the accuracy
of a single witness who was either in possession of many priceless unpublished
documents or had access thereto as President of the Martinist Order - the late
Gerard Encausse, otherwise Dr. Papus - to whom my notes have referred already.
He presents us with further extracts from the letters of Martines de Pasqually,
who affirms therein (1) that if the thing - La chose - were not as I have
certified and had it not been manifested as it was, not only in my own
presence but in that of so many others who desired to know it, I should have
abandoned it myself and should have been in conscience bound to dissuade those
who approached it in good faith; (2) that ill respect of the failure of
Willermoz there was no gound for surprise because "the Thing is sometimes
severe towards those who desire it too ardently before the time." (1a) One
would think that La chose signified simply the subject or matter in hand, but
according to Papus it was the Intelligence or Mysterious Being which
manifested in response to the invocations. We are to interpret the reference
in this sense when Saint-Martin says, in his communication to Willermoz of
March 25, 1771, that he was "convinced concerning the thing before having
received the most efficacious of our ordinations." I do not know how Papus
satisfied himself respecting this forced and arbitrary construction, but
whether it is correct or not, there is no question as to the fact that a
Mysterious Being manifested by the evidence of the archives or that it was
called subsequently by other names, such as "the Unknown Agent charged with
the work of initiation," an expression of Willermoz.

It follows that ure have good ground for accepting the view of Abbe Fournie,
another disciple of the Rite, when he said that Pasqually had the faculty of
confirming his instructions by means of "external visions, at first vague and
passing with the rapidity of lightning, but afterwards more and more distinct
and prolonged." (1a) Having established this point of fact, which sufficiently
distinguishes the Grand Sovereign from other purveyors of High Masonic Grades
in France of the eighteenth century, and his Rite also from many scores of
contemporary institutions, we have to ascertain - if we can - what
characterized the manifestations, so that they justified Saint-Martin in the
extraordinary view which he held concerning them, not in the first flush of
occult experiences, but at a mature period of life.

Meanwhile I have sketched his position and environment at the beginning of his
intellectual career. As a result of exchanging the profession of law for that
of arms, he had entered a circle which brought him to the gates of certain
Instituted Mysteries, then at work about him; he had been initiated, passed
and raised in the parlance of Blue Masonry; he had received the ordination of
the Elect Priesthood; and had attained its highest Grade, being that of Rose
Croix. It remains to add that he had left the army and was now approaching a
point where the road which he had travelled divided: he had therefore to
choose a path.

CHAPTER III

THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH

THE correspondence between Saint-Martin and
Willermoz had continued for two years and five months, but they had never seen
one another. In the early part of September, 1773, Saint-Martin repaired to
Lyons and was domiciled in that town for something approaching a year, during
part of which he was apparently the guest of his rich Masonic brother. His own
resources were small, and there are indications that he was not on the best
terms with his father, no doubt owing to the fact that for the second time he
had abandoned a career in life. We have seen that there was a Temple of the
Elect Priesthood at Lyons, which was also an historically important centre of
Freemasonry in France, and Willermoz was an active member and officer of all
the Rites. Saint-Martin, on the other hand, cared little or less than nothing
for ceremonial procedure, for Ritual which he found empty and for the hollow
pomp of titles. By his own evidence, the offices of Ceremonial Magic were only
less distasteful, notwithstanding his high opinion of the influences at work
among them in the circle to which he belonged. He affirms that he had no "virtuality"
in activities of that kind; that he had little "talent" for its operations;
that he "experienced at all times so strong an inclination to the intimate
secret way that this external one never seduced me further, even in my youth";
and that he exclaimed more than once to has Master: "Can all this be needed to
find God?" (1a) Such being the case, there need be no cause for surprise that
Saint-Martin put on record long after has opinion that the "first sojourn at
Lyons in 1773" was not much more "profitable" than others which he made later
and especially in 1785. (2a) It was important, however, in another and very
different way, for it marked the beginning of his literary life. "It was at
Lyons," he tells us, "that I wrote the book Des Erreurs et de la Verite,
partly by way of occupation and because I was indignant with the philosophers
so called, having read in Boulanger that the origin of religions was to be
sought in the terror occasioned by the catastrophes of Nature. I wrote some
thirty pages at first, which I showed to a circle that I was instructing at
the house of M. Willermoz, and they pledged me to continue. It was composed
towards the end of 1773 and at the beginning of 1774, in the space of four
months and by the kitchen-fire, for there was no other at which I could warm
myself.

He was not therefore in residence during those months with his Masonic friend:
he was probably en pension somewhere, and not too well situated because of his
means. The task was executed with great expedition, having regard to its
subject and the deep searching demanded throughout its length: indeed, his
application must have been unremitting, the result comprising nearly five
hundred pages. The next point which it is requisite to note, for reasons which
will appear immediately, is that it is written in the first person, which
indeed recurs continually, so that the Philosophe Inconnu whose name appears
on the title is with the reader from beginning to end. The individual note was
characteristic of Saint-Martin's writings throughout his literary life, but it
is to be observed that though ever present it was never insistent and was
never touched by egotism. He spoke from the fullness of the heart, as from an
unfailing fountain, and has even put on record his feeling that there was not
enough paper in the world to contain all that he had to deliver, could he only
reduce it to writing. He had also a certain sacred tenderness towards the
children of his mind, even when he dwelt on their imperfections. In a word, he
was a typical literary man of the better kind, as well as a true mystic.

We are told elsewhere that his works, and especially the earliest in time,
were the fruit of his affectionate attachment to man, and that as regards Des
Errears et de la Verite, being concerned only with making war on materialistic
philosophy, he could not permit the reader to see precisely where he was being
led, because it would have set him at once in opposition, "the Scriptures
having fallen into such discredit among men." (1a) It follows not only that
they are not quoted in the work; but that Christ Himself is referred to in a
veiled manner, as the Active and Intelligent Cause, the Agent, Guide of Man,
etc. It would be easy to enumerate other points, showing that Saint-Martin's
first work was schemed and excogitated and written from has own basis, under
one reserve only, that the root-matter of its doctrine is presented as coming
from a secret source, that he was under pledges concerning it and that owing
to these a reservation was imposed upon him, so that his elucidations could be
carried only to a certain point. Here is a clear issue, and as regards the
source itself we are not in doubt concerning it, since the year 1899, when
Martmes de Pasqually's important Traite de la Reintegration des Etres was
published for the first time in France. It is practically possible to check
every point of reticence registered by Saint-Martin and to see what lies
behind it by reference to this treatise, it being understood that Pasqually on
his own part derived from other teachers, to us unknowns with whom he seems to
have been in personal communication, but whether in the body or out of the
body we cannot tell.

Having presented the literary history of Des Erreurs in this manner, I have
now to contrast with it the counter-view put forward by Dr. Papus on the
alleged authority of his Martinistic archives. He affirms, (1) that the book
Des Erreurs was due almost entirely to an "invisible origin"; (2) that the
being whom in 1895 he had certified as "always designated under the enigmatic
name of La chose" was called the Unknown Philosopher; (3) that it was he who
gave forth the work as regards the major part; (4) that he dictated 166
cahiers d'instruction; (5) that some of these were transcribed by
Saint-Martin; (6) that the "Unknown Philosopher" gave orders for Saint-Martin
to assume this name; and that (7) the said "Agent" himself destroyed about
eighty cahiers in 1790 to prevent them falling into the hands of Robespierre's
emissaries, "who were making unheard-of efforts to acquire them." It follows
that Saint- Martin has given an altogether misleading account of his first
book, and that in spite of its strong and prevailing personal note it cannot
be called his work. I have, however, collated his statements, and those who
know him are likely to prefer his version of the matter to archives largely
unpublished and not available for inspection, as Dr. Papus refers expressly
(1a) to documents reserved for the sole use of the directing Committee at the
head of his Supreme Council. When, therefore, he states further that the
archives include various sheets of instructions communicated by "the Unknown
Agent" and annotated by the hand of Saint Martin we have to regard it in the
light of later revelations supplied by the President of the Martinist Order,
remembering that in 1899 he promised to produce proofs in a volume devoted to
the mystic. That volume appeared in 1902 and contained fifty unpublished
letters of Saint-Martin, to some of which I have referred. They are prefaced
by a biographical summary written around the documents. In neither one nor the
other is any ray of light cast upon the previous claims: they are indeed the
subject of allusion only in a single sentence. But we obtain unexpected
enlightenment in other respects. Whereas there is no evidence whatever of
communications dictated by the Unknown Agent during the life of Pasqually or
for over ten years after his death, we are told by Dr. Papus, though there is
no allusion to the fact in Saint-Martz's letters, that in 1785, the Agent in
question, who seems to have remained in abeyance since the death of the Grand
Sovereign, began to manifest at Lyolls, where he dictated "nearly one hundred
folios," being those precisely of which the majority were burned in 1790. The
archives of the Order, it is added, include the bulk of those that were saved.
In place, moreover, of leaving seen, transcribed and annotated a mass of
written instructions prior to 1785, we are told only of teachings that are
likely to have been "heard" and to have been incorporated into his work by the
author of Des Erreurs.

It will be seen that the ground vs changed completely and that we are getting
nearer to the probable facts of the case. I do not doubt that Willermoz and
his circle received psychic communications in one or another psychic condition,
induced by prolonged operations inspired by that intent, or with the aid of "lucids,"
the intervention of whom is admitted. (2a) I do not doubt that they were
reduced into writing, and as the news of what was takings place brought
Saint-Martin to Lyons with all possible speed, it is certain that he read, he
may well have transcribed and annotated, but all this was years subsequently
to the publication of Des Erreurs et de la Verite. I am preferring no charge
whatever against Dr. Papus, who sealed a laborious life by a heroic death in
the cause of the sick and wounded during the Great War. We were, moreover,
personally acquainted, and our relations were always cordial. But he was
unfortunately a most inaccurate writer, and the present monograph might be
extended to twice its size if I analysed the errors which fill his three books
dealing with Martinistic subjects. As regards the archives, he tells us in
1895 that he had been permitted to see those which were in the possession of a
certain M. Cavernier and had transcribed some of them, devoting one week to
the task. (1a) In 1899 it looks as if some originals had come into his
possession, though he does not explain how. I conceive that in this year he
was in confusion as to the dates, extent and precise nature of the psychic
communications. By 1902 he had made better progress with them and modified his
affirmations accordingly, but without overtly withdrawing anything. I conceive
that in this manner the question may be permitted to rest, unless and until
the present custodians of the archives may decide to proceed further with the
work of their publication. It seems to me that I have adopted a reasonable and
middle ground which accounts for the facts without accusing anyone. Under the
aegis of Pasqually the Rite of the Elect Priesthood was one of occult
instruction as well as occult practice and the pageant - such as it may have
been - of cumulative Grades. The teaching was of course under pledges, and
that part of it which Saint-Martin felt permitted to unfold was put forward in
his first book. La chose may refer to Pasqually's Guide in the unseen,
howsoever communication was established -supposing that Papus is correct in
his understanding of this term. But the pledges may have covered also
instruction from other sources, the "Predecessors" about whom Pasqually we ote
to Willermoz on April 13, 1768. (1a) I take it that the sum of instruction
received from all sources is enshrined in the Grand Sovereign's Treatise on
Reintegration.

We have seen that it is reflected also into the first work of Saint-Martin, as
through the alembic of an original mind, disposed already to the higher
elections of the human soul. A work of collation would bear this fact in mind,
but there is no opportunity to attempt it in the present place. Saint-Martin's
theory of good and evil is based on the doctrine of two unequal principles,
between which there is no co-operation and no analogy. Of these two the
inferior became evil by the sole act of its own will, being one of opposition
to the Eternal Will of Goodness, wherein is essential unity. Man in his primal
estate is the most ancient of all beings in that which is understood as Nature,
but he was the last which entered into its scheme. He came forth from the
centre, that is to say, from the Divine Goodness, but abode in the presence
thereof, and his function was intended to be that of leading all things back
into unity. But he fell from this high estate, was deprived of all his ancient
rights, while another Agent was commissioned to take his place. This Agent is
the Active and Intelligent Cause, and thereunto, as the Great Chief and Guide,
is committed the order of the universe. The inference is that this order was
intended originally to have been in the hands of man until ad that is in
separation shall have been reconciled with its one and only source. It is to
be inferred that He or That which has been called to rule in substitution for
man has become the Leader into unity, otherwise the Reconciler and Repairer,
while His most important charge since that which is termed the Fall is the
reconciliation of our fallen race. We have passed from unity into separation
by the work of our own will, have renounced our own vocation and forfeited all
our titles; but He who repairs restores, in virtue of a capacity for
restoration which has always remained with us. It follows that at the time of
reintegration the estate of man will be in virtual unity smith that of the
Repairer, Whose true name is Christ, whereas Saint-Martin says that in respect
of our potencies we are all Christs. (1a) Saint-Martin's expositions are like
Craft Freemasonry, "veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." The nature
of the Fall is clouded in this manner, for it is said that man descended into
the region of fathers and mothers, otherwise into the circle of physical
generation, in place of those generations which are spiritual. It is a parable
of original unity and subsequent divorce, of the separation between subject
and object, or of the lover and beloved in another form of imagery. Now, the
way of division is the way of errors, but that of truth is the way of union,
or this at least is how I understand Saint-Martin in the testimonies which he
bears to reality. In a sense his first work is de omnibus rebus, but here is
the root of all. Having regard to its suggestive presentation, to its
originality of thought and style, and - not least of all - to its studied
reservations and allusions to a hidden source of knowIedge, I can understand
its extraordinary effect upon prepared minds of France in the year 1776.

CHAPTER IV

A DOCTRINE OF CORRESPONDENCES

WE have seen that Saint-Martin completed his
literary experiment in the early part of 1774, and in the autumn of that year
he paid a short visit to Italy, in the company of a brother of Willermoz. They
returned apparently to Lyons, where Saint-Martin must have been occupied for
some time in seeing his work through the press. It appeared in 1775 under the
pseudonym of "the Unknown Philosopher," and bearing the imprint of Edinburgh,
which, however, must be understood as Lyons. We do not know when he left that
city, but he was in Paris at the end of July, at Lyons again in the autumns at
Tours on a flying visit, and then at Bordeaux in 1776. He had returned to
Paris in March 1777. Pasqually had died at Port- au-Prince on September 20,
1774, having nominated Caignet de Lestere as his successor, he also being
resident in the West Indies. The Temples of the Elect Priesthood were left to
their own devices, and the mighty pageant of the Strict Observance drew
several under that obedience. Willermoz becames - as stated previously - Grand
Prior of Auvergne, and having profited nothing in attempting to follow
Pasqually's instructions concerning Ceremonial Magic, he was presumably more
and more immersed in Masonry, especially its High Grades. Whatever sympathy
may have existed originally between him and Saint-Martin when they were merely
correspondents - their paths were now dividing, and the born mystic was
disposing of the occult yoke placed upon him by his early Master. There is
evidence of strained relations when Saint- Martin wrote from Paris on JuIy 30,
1775, to dissuade WilIermoz from supposing that he was seeking the latter's
conversion to his own views or was presuming to pronounce judgment upon him.
At the same time certain matters, the nature of which does not emerge in the
letter, made it necessary for the peace of both that he should no longer be a
guest of has friend, though for the sake of the Order and its - members he
must return to Lyons and remain there a given time. It should not appear, in
other words, that there was estrangement between himself and Willermoz. When,
therefore, he took a lodging in isolation, it would be explained that he was
following up chemical experiments. Whether the device served its purpose we do
not know, but after it reached a term the two correspondents do not seem to
have met one another for ten years. They continued to write occasionally, and
they remained friends.

It has been suggested that Des Erreurs filled the purse of Saint- Martin, but
the evidence of his improved position cannot be accounted for by reference to
that source its considerable measure of success notwithstanding. On the
contrary, there are indications that he was on better terms with his father,
and I infer that thenceforward he was not without modest means. It has been
suggested also that the authorship of the book was kept a profound secret.
this is unlikely in the nature of things, for it was obviously well known at
Lyons prior to publication. It has been said by one of his biographers that he
"became known widely and was in request everywhere." His own memorial notes
bear witness to the distinguished circle of his acquaintance, and so also do
his letters. It is unnecessary to labour the point, and as, for the rest, his
life in social and intellectual circles during the seven years between 1775
and 1782 has left little trace behind it, I pass on to the latter date, to
which his second book belongs. In one of those unconverted intimations which
seem to open for a moment his whole heart of purpose, Saint-Martin says that
his work has its fount and course in the Divine.(1a) He is alluding to work of
life rather than books, but it is true of all that he wrote, and the Tableau
Naturel des Rapports qui existent entre Dieu, I'Homme et Univers was assuredly
undertaken for the justification by means of their unfoldment of the ways of
God to man. It was written at Paris, as he tells us, partly in the Luxembourg
at the house of the Marquise de Lusignan and partly in that of the Marquise de
Ia Croix. (1a) Publication took place in two parts appearing, as previously,
in one volume elated 1782 - at the symbolical Edinburgh, which on this
occasion is more likely to mean Paris than Lyons though the latter place is
understood by bibliographers. We have seen that Des Erreurs confessed to
recurring reservations, and it has all the atmosphere of a truncated document
issued from a Temple of the Mysteries, or at least a Secret College. The -
Natural Scheme of Correspondences, on the surface, withholdi nothing, yet it
adopts another air of mystery. The entirely anonymous publishers state in a
prefatory note (1) that they received the MS. from an unknown person; (2) that
it had numerous marginal additions in- a different hand; (3) that they seemed
different from the rest of the work; and (4) that in printing they had been
placed in quotation commas, to distinguish them from the rest of the text.
When tased on the subs ject by Baron de Liebistorf, Saint-Martin admitted (1)
that the passages referred to were his; (2) that the publisher regarded them
as out of keeping with the rest of the work; (3) that he gave the explanation
which he did to prepare readers; and (4) that he was allowed to have his way.
It happens that the paragraphs in quotations are the most enigmatical parts of
the work, and suggest derivation from Pasqually's occult instructions; it
happens also that Saint-Martin was replying to a correspondent who was not
initiated; and if, therefore, what he says does not quite cover the facts, we
may take it as the best that he could do without discovering his source. In
any case, the paragraphs were written - i.e. expressed - by himself, and, for
the rest, their consequence is not in proportion to their obscurity.

The Tableau compares the universe to a great temple: "the stars are its lights,
the earth is its altar, all corporeal beings are its holocausts, and man, who
is priest of the Eternal, offers the sacrifices." It follows from the logic of
the symbolism that he himself is the chief holocaust, and this must be the
sense in which it is said also that the universe is "like a great fire lighted
since the beginning of things for the purification of all corrupted beings."
Finally, it is "a great allegory or fable which must give place to a grand
morality." When it is affirmed elsewhere that the external world is illusory,
the reference presumably is to its surface sense, apart from the inward
meaning. God is the meaning and God the grand morality; creation is not merely
His visible sign, but a channel through which His thoughts are communicated to
intelligent beings. Here is the only mode of communication for fallen man,
namely, through signs and emblems. But these and the whole signifying universe
are earnests of God's love for corrupted creatures and endence that He is at
work unceasingly "to remove the separation so contrary to their felicity." As
it is certain that He does not world in vain, it follows that a day will come
when there shall be no separateness thenceforward. So does the end emerge with
all true thought implying - when it does not express - the doctrine of unity,
all true paths being paths that lead thereto, and God Himself - One, Immutable
and Eternal - the Witness from everlasting to this our end of being. Here is
the Great Work, and it is to be performed "by restoring in our faculties the
same law, the same order, the same regularity by which all beings are directed
in Nature," or, in other words, by acting no longer in our own name, but in
that of the living God. It is a work of the will in its redirection, for this
is "the agent bar which alone man and every free being can efface within them
and round them the traces of error and crime. The revindication of the will is
therefore the chief work of all fallen creatures.

The same Iesson is conveyed in symbolical language when it is said that "the
object of man on earth is to employ all rights and powers of his being in
rarefying as far as possible the intervening media between himself and the
true Sun, so that - the opposition being practically none there may be a free
passage, and that the rays of light may reach him without refraction." It will
be seen that, as in Des Erreurs, the instrument by which we fall is that-also
by which we must rise: the evil in man originated in the will of man, and
thereby it must be stamped out His "crime" is defined as "the abuse of the
knowledge he possessed concerning the union of the principle of the universe
with the universe." His penalty was the privation of this knowledge. The
definition is dogmatic, and it is obvious that Saint-Martin can throw no light
on the real nature of the alleged knowledge: otherwise he must have undone the
crime in his own person. He is least convincing when discussing the legendary
Fall, and most when conveying his own thoughts apart from any formal system.
When he tells us that truth is in God, that it is written in all about us,
that its messages are meant for our reading, that the light within leads to
the light without; that the principle of being and of life is within us, that
it cannot perish, that the regeneration of our "virtues" is possible; and that
we can ascend to a demonstration of the Active and Invisible Principle, from
which the universe derives its existence and its Iaws: we are then in the
presence of the mystic who is speaking on the warrants of his proper insight

CHAPTER V

THE MAN OF DESIRE

AFTER the publication of Le Tableau Naturel
Saint-Martin remained less or more at Pares, and his intermittent
correspondence with Willermoz is at times scarcely intelligible in the absence
of the latter's communications. Willermoz evidently was passing through a
strenuous period, connected perhaps with embroilments consequent on the
Masonic Convention of Wilhelmsbad, held in 1782, and the fate of the Strict
Observance. There is one allusion which suggests vaguely the his torical
transformation of that Rite at Lyons prior to 1778, and the creation thereby
of the Knights Beneficent of the Holy City. But there is no certainty on the
subject, and for the rest we learn only of Saint-Martin's brief interest in
the discovery of Mesmer, hts con nection with a society instituted by that
great comet of a season, and his presence at certain cures operated
magnetically by Puysegur. A single remark informs us that he would take no
part in the Convention of Paris, summoned by the Rite of the Philalethes. We
reach in this manner the month of April, 1785, when Saint Martin had received
such news from Willermoz that in his reply of the 29th (1) he expresses his
rapture on learning that the sun has risen on Israel; (2) he affirms that the
man so chosen is for him henceforward a man of God whom he will venerate as
the anointed one of the Saviour; (3) he entreats him to pardon whatever wrongs
he may be thought to have committed against him on his own part; (4) he
ascribes all differences which have arisen between them to his own ignorance
(5) he condemns himself for his temerity in having published anything; ( 6) he
asks Willermoz to intercede for him with something which appears to be called
La chose, whose place he has taken unasked; (7) he prays to be enlightened on
the faults of his own heart the errors of his mind and of his works, (8) he
places himself under has orders and terms him has master, holy friend, father
in God and Christ Jesus.

It looks evident in a word that Saint-Martin stood ready to set aside all his
previous views and inferentially those which had always disposed him towards
the inward way of the mystics rather than that of his first Master What,
therefore, had occurred ? I have forestalled the event unavoidably in my third
chapter. According to Dr. Papus, the archives in his possession show that
after prolonged failure Willermoz reached the end of his labours, that he
obtained "phenomena of the highest importance," which culminated in 1785, or "thirteen
years after the death of his initiator Martines de Pasqually." More explicitly,
the Being who is said to be described by Willermoz as "the Unknown Agent
charged with the work of initiation" - otherwise, perhaps, La chose -
materialised at Lyons and gave instructions which - as we have seen were
reduced to writing.

Occurrences of this kind being innumerable at the present day, I suppose that
we are not in a position to sympathize with the raptures of Saint-Martin, his
tears or his changing front. His next letter, dated May 13, indicates that he
had been reassured and consoled by Willermoz, for which he praises God. He
waits now on a summons to Lyons, that he may see and hear for himself.
Meanwhile he and his correspondent will remain united through time and
eternity. On June 30 he has made preparations for the journey and is looking
to greet Willermoz soon after the letter under that date. Of what followed we
know little and nest to nothing, except that fifteen months later Saint-Martin
is at Paris, bewailing his imprudence in having spoken too freely to certain
brethren and thus prejudiced the "enjoyments" of has friend. (2a) In January,
1787, he is in London, where he remained for some six months, making the
acquaintance of William Law and the astronomer Herschel, the Comte de Divonne,
Dutens and the Russian Prince Galitzin, with whom he was domiciled. It was in
London also, as he tells us, that he wrote his third book, L'Homme de Desir,
though it was not published till 1790, and then at Lyons. It is important not
only in itself, as one of Saint-Martin's most inspired writings, but as
showing beyond debate that, whatever experiences had awaited him at Lyons,
they cooled the ardour kindled by their first indications, and he had returned
to his own path with an increased sense of declication. I can say only that
the hunger and thirst after God are in all its pages. This is not, however, to
suggest that he is denuded of all interests in the Lyons phenomena: his only
letter written to Willermoz while in England offers a contrary indication; but
the interest appears detached.

In July, 1787, Saint-Martin passed through Paris on has way to Amboise, where
his father had been stricken with paralysis. In September he was again at
Lyons, but it was in the absence of Willermoz. Thereafter he paid a second
visit to Italy, visiting Siena and Rome. In the early part of 1788 Papus
reports that the apparitions of the Agent had ceased, according to a letter of
Willermoz. (1a) In April of that year Saint-Martin is at Paris and about to
visit his father, who is still alive, at the native place of both. In June he
proceeded to Strasbourg, where he resided for three years, the happiest of all
his life. As I said long ago: "It was here, under the auspices of Rodolphe
Salzmann, also mystically disposed, and of Madame de Boecklin, his most
intimate and cherished woman friend, that he made his first acquaintance with
the writings of Jacob Bohme; here he became intimate with the Chevalier de
Silferhielm, a nephew of Swedenborg; and all his horizon widened under the
influence of the Teutonic theosopher. On December 16, 1789, he asked Willermoz
whether he could participate in the "initiation" attached to the Regime
Rectifie without belonging to its Symbolical Lodge. I do not think that Papus
knew what this meant, and therefore wisely offered no word of comment. But the
Regime Ecossais Ancien et Rectifie was the Strict Observance as transformed at
Lyons and ratified at Wilhelmsbad; more especially it was the Craft Degrees of
this Rite and their supplement the Grade of St. Andrew. Beyond it were the
novitiate and chivalry of the Holy City, and these again beyond were two final
Grades, which I do not propose to specify by name, as they were and are in the
hiddenness. It is to these that Saint-Martin refers under the vague title of "initiations."
He did not apparently get a straight answer, and on July 4, 1790, he asked
Willermoz to advise the proper quarter of his resignation from the Interior
Order - i.e., the novitiate and chivalry - and from all lists and registers in
which his name may have been inscribed since 1785. He points out that in the
spirit he had never been integrated therein. His intention apparently was to
remain among the Coens - i.e., the EIect Priesthood - but how nominally we
call imagine from the utter detachment of his letter, (1a) the references to
his simple mode of life, and above all his closing words, in which he
registers a hope that he has separated for ever from those complicated paths
which had always wearied him. It is an eloquent commentary on the
manifestations of Lyons, the dictated instructions of La chose, the astral
travellings of D'Hauterive, and the clairvoyances of the "lucids" who seem to
have assisted at the operations. There are no further letters from
Saint-Martin to Willermoz, and already during this year, in some early month,
the Agent had received "on demand" and had destroyed "more than eighty folios"
of his dictated instructions, the same not having been " published," as
Willermos states in a letter quoted by Papus.

It follows that ''the Unknown Agent charged with the work of initiation" had
undone that work, and whether or not, as suggested- but Papus seems doubtful -
the manifestations continued at intervals till 1796, it would seem that there
is no record of proceedings, and the whole thing sagged out. The Elect
Priesthood missed its mark; with all his ceremonial, all his occult powers,
PasqualIy scored a failure, and the Master who emerged from the unseen,
carrying such high ascribed warrants, permitted himself, through sheer lack in
resources, to be circumvented by as the emissaries of Robespierre." Meanwhile
the star of Saint-Martin's influence grew from more to more. L'Homme de Desir
was reprinted several times, and in the highest circles of society, at
Strasbourg and Paris, in the palace of the Duchesse de Bourbon, amidst the
convulsions of the revolutions he taught the way of the mystics.

CHAPTER VI

LATER LIFE AND WRITINGS

IT was at Strasbourg and, I think, towards the
end of his sojourn in this city of blessed memories that Saint-Martin wrote
another of his most suggestive treatises, Le Nouvel Homme, "the aim of which,"
as he tells us, "is to describe what we should expect in regeneration." (1a)
It presents three epochs of symbolism: the first corresponds to the history of
Israel, regarded as that of universal election, man's own nature being the
Promised Land, whence it is necessary to cast out the wicked and idolatrous
nations that have ruled therein, after which the altars of the Lord must be
set up instead and the Law proclaimed by the higher part of our nature. The
second epoch is that of the Christ-Life, which must be conceived and born
within us for the work of our redemption. All stages of the Divine Life in
Palestine are marshalled to illustrate the story of the New Man from the
moment of His birth within us to that of mystical death, and from the descent
into the underworld to the last and greatest mystery on the Mountain of
Ascension. To the Second Advent belongs the third epoch of symbolism, being
that of the Apocalypse, the new heaven and the new earth declared within us,
the tabernacle of God with men, the Celestial Jerusalem built up into our
spiritual being.

The sojourn at Strasbourg came to an end in 1791, and for perhaps a year
Saint-Martin was chiefly at Paris, where he wrote his neat book, entitled Ecce
Homo; "to forewarn people against the wonders and prophecies of the time," to
indicate the "degree of abasement" into which man has fallen and of which the
passion for lower marvels, like those of somnambulism, appears to be the prime
example. The thesis in this sense is a strange but pregnant commentary
respecting the transmutation of interests on the part of one who for a moment
was integrated in a school of Mesmer and was a friend or fellow-worker of
Puysegur. Ecce Homo was partly written as a counsel for the Duchesse de
Bourbon and very likely in her own house. It appeared prior to Le. Nouvel
Homme, though composed subsequently: both worlds, however, were published in
1792, the Reign of Terror notwithstanding. Saint-Martin was still in Paris
during that dread ordeal. "The streets near the house I was in were a field of
battle; the house itself was a hospital where the wounded were brought and,
moreover, was threatened every moment with invasion and pillage. In the midst
of all this I had to go, at the risk of my life, to take care of my sister,
half a league from my dwelling." (1a) It is to be inferred from a later record
that the "dwelling" was that of the Duchesse.

There is no space here to speak of Saint-Martin's political theories, of his
feelings towards the French Revolution, of certain things without importance
or consequence which occurred to him therein. I am concerned only with the
deeper issues of his life and thoughts. A writer on errors and truths had
obviously something to say on the basis of governments, the authority of
sovereigns and on jurisprudence, while a searcher of religion and theosophy,
who had passed through the world-crisis at the end of the eighteenth century
at its very heart and centre, could neither fail to have his part therein nor
to leave us reflections thereon. We have Philosophical and Religious
Considerations on the French Revolution, Light on Human Association and a few
other pamphlets which do not call to be named.

Saint-Martin had also some actinties of another kind imposed upon him, as,
e.g., when he was called to the Ecole Normale, instituted to train teachers
for public instruction. These things did not last and left no mark behind them.
In September, 1792, the health of has father called him again to Amboise,
where he remained for a year, or a considerable time after the father's death.
We hear of him then at Petit Bourg, a country house of the Duchesse de Bourbon,
and afterwards at Paris till the spring of 1794, when "a decree against the
privileged and proscribed classes, amongst which it was his lot to be born,
enforced his return to Amboise till it was cancelIed in his respect in January,
1795, when the.work of L'Ecole Normale brought him back to the capital for a
period. His time appears to have been divided between Paris and his native
town till the end of 1799, and I mention this year because on December 24
Saint-Martin lost so much by the death of the Baron Kirchberger de Liebistorf,
a kindred spirit with whom he had maintained for five years what I described
long ago as "the most memorable, the most beautiful, the most fascinating of
all theosophical correspondences. (1a) It became available in English so far
back as 1863, but the edition has been out of print for decades, and I
question whether there could be a better gift than an annotated translation at
the present day by one who knows Saint-Martin, his work and has period. It
contains the true marrow, spirit and quintessence of the French mystic, and
has been referred to often in my notes.

His devotion to Jacob Bohme was the chief mental characteristic of his later
life; it is ever present in his correspondences above described, but I have
never been able to see that it changed his own views: it may be true to Say
that it deepened them, but he.was on sure mystic ground already before the
Teutonic theosopher gave him has own light.

I do not think that it would have helped him to alter for the better one line
of L'Homme de Desir, though he has left it on record that in the light of
Jacob Bohme he should have written Le Nouvel Homme differently, or psrhaps not
at all. In the year 1800 L'Esprit des Choses appeared at Paris in two volumes,
with a Latin epigraph on the title in which it was affirmed that "man is the
mirror of the totality of things." Concerning this suggestive work
Saint-Martin has offered three points of information: (1) That it was
projected originally under the title of Natural Revelations, collected from
original notes, with additions thereunto; (2) that it embraces the whole
circle of things physical and scientific, spiritual and Divine; (3) that it is
a kind of introduction to the works of Jacob Bohme. The last in its final
reduction must be called indicative of intention, and Saint-Martin, I do not
doubt, was conscious that his own intimations were in bonds of spiritual
espousals with his great German peer, but in their contributions to.the higher
literature of the soul there are no two mystics so utterly unlike each other
in all their former and modes. It is a question, therefore, of penetrating
below the surface, when that which we reach is the heart of union common to
all who have followed the great quest of experience in God. It is certain that
Saint-Martin grew daily in the consciousness of such union with Bohme, and
when he continued in his own manner to deliver his own message it seemed to
him doubtless that he was, following the message of his precursor. For
L'Esprit des Choses, man is the organ of Divine Order, man is the mirror of
all things. Nature is in somnambulism and we are involved therein, whence I
suppose it may be inferred. that she waits on our awaking and passes out of
sleep in us. These things and.many others are notions which were with
Saint-Martin from the beginning. Occasionally there are higher and deeper
things than those which we have heard previously, but they are not of Bohme
nor of any other than the French mystic himself - as, e.g., that the soul
becomes the Name of the Lord, . and the Name is declared within it.

There.are practically no materials for the external life of Saint- Martin
after the year 1799; the Portrait Historique tells.us practically nothing, and
we know of him only by his books. In the closing years of his life he was.working
zealously at translations of Bohme, Aurora, The Three Prfruciples, Forty
Questions and Threefold Idle of Man, but he. had made a beginning much earlier.
We are not.concerned with these versions, but Le Ministere de l'Homme-Esprit,
(1a) published in 1802, his last original work, is in some respects the most
important of all and from his own-point of view was written more clearly than
the rest, though he felt its remoteness from common human notions and human
interests It has been held to illustrate his intention of marrying his "first
school" to the Teutonic theosopher, but again the kind of marriage is that of
the amity at the root of all the great mystics and their great subjects. For
the rest, the book is built on the basis of his own anterior writings, the
substance of which he presents in the opening pages, as he gives also a
summary of Bohme and indicates unawares certain salient points of doctrinal
correspondence between the latter and Martines de Pasqually exhibited in La
Reintegration des Etres. Apart from all systems and all authorities, the
ministry is a book of innumerable detached lights, some of which belong to the
order of first magnitude. It is possible to name only its "intimations of
immortality," of death and the gate of life, of the path which is opened in
regeneration, of spiritual life and its communication, of the Sabbath attained
by Nature, the Sabbath of the soul and the Sabbath of the Word. There is also
the doctrine of the Eternal Word, as it passed through the alembic of the
French mystic's mind, its relation to the universe and man, how it is the
measure of all things and is the very Word of Life, in opposition to that
which Saint-Martin calls the Word of Death.

The Ministry has been termed his swan's song, but it is rather his last
contemplation, in which he opened many wells of thought and looked across many
paths of vision. On January 18, 1803, he recorded in his notes that this date
completed his sixtieth year and that it had opened to him a new world. "My
spiritual hopes proceed in growth continual. I advance, thanks be to God,
towards those great beatitudes which were shown forth to me long ago, and
shall crown all joys with which I have been encompassed continually in my,
earthly life." (1a) A note added in the summer says that he had received
certain warnings of a physical enemy and thought that it would carry him of as
it had done with his father before him. He asked only the help of Providence,
that he might hold himself prepared for the event. (2a) On October 13, 1803,
at Aulnay, near Sceaux, in the house of a friend - Comte Lenoir La-Roche -
after an apoplectic stroke, he passed painlessly away in a final act of prayer.

CHAPTER VII

MODERN MARTINISM

IT will be seen that I have depended
throughout on printed documents, no others being avail able to research in
England, but that the sources of many which have been quoted are in the
archives of the Martinist Order. They would appear to form, however,
comparatively a small part of those which have been certified as extant at
different periods. We are told (1a) (1) that thearchives of the Elect
Priesthood were deposited in 1781 with Savalette de Langes, who was the
President of the Philalethes; (2) that after his death they were sold
indiscriminately, together with those of the Philalethes and the Rite Ecossais
Philosophique, and were purchased for next to nothing by three Masonic
Brethren, who returned them to the proper quarters, two of them retaining
these of the Elect Priesthood, as they had been members of the Rite; (3) that
this restitution took place in 1806; (4) that the two custodians delivered
them in 1809 to another member, named Destigny, on his return from St.
Domingo,. he being a legatee of Pasqually, and having otherwise a greater
claim upon them; (5) that Destigny was already in possession. of the surviving
West Indian archives; (6) that in 1812 his collection was enriched by those of
the Orient of Avignon, which had been taken into Italy prior to the Revolution;
(7) that the whole remained in his keeping till 1868, when he transferred them
to M. Villarial, a year before his death, in whose possession they continued
at least till the end of 1899. They comprised the records of eleven Orients -
otherwise Lodges - of the Order, those of Leogana in the West Indies having
been lost in a fire, and those of Lyons having come into the hands of Papus
otherwise of the Martinist Order.

As regards-the archives of Lyons we are told by Papus whence and how they or
their transcripts were derived by him. His account has been summarised in my
second chapter. I have specified also the documents in the hands of M.
Matter's descendants, he being himself a descendant of Rodolphe de Salzmann,
whom I have mentioned previously as one of the Strasbourg circle. They are
said to include the correspondence of.Saint-Martin with Salzmann himself, with
Mme de Boecklin, the Comte de Divonne. and others, as also that of Salzmann.
But there are owners of other collections D'Effinger, Toumyer, Munier (1a) -
who are not even names to us. Of eech and all it has to be said that nothing
has been heard of them for over twenty years and that the Great War has
intervened. We have been promised for the same period a Histoire Generale de
l'Ordre des EIus Coens and a study of Willermoz based on the archives of Lyons,
but they have not appeared and we are not likely to see them. In view of the
wealth of material it may well be that the definitive life of Saint-Martin and
of has earlier if not later concerns still remains to be done. I have
presented a mere outline, and in some sense a supplement to my former extended
work.

It remains to speak briefly of L'Ordre Martiniste. We learn from Camille
Flammarion that between 1860 and 1870 he was acquainted with a litterateur
named Henri Delaage, who is mentioned also by Eliphas Levi; that he heard much
from Delaage concerning M. de Chaptal, his grandfather, who knew Saint-Martin,
apparently fairly well. (1a) These are the bare facts, to which it may be
added that at the beginning of his occult life Papus seemingly got to know
Delaage and received from him, some months before the latter's death, what is
termed a pauvre depot (2a), constitue par deux lettres et quelques points in
fact, the modern Martinist cipher S I which is rendered Silencieux Inconnus,
other wise the Unknown Silent Ones. Delaage had written in his time two or
three occult books which were fantastic in matter and impossible in style.
They do not suggest his connection with any society for the exposition of
Saint-Martin's mystical teaching, either secretly or in public, and so far as
Papus is concerned he fails to explain why the cipher was communicated or what
it signified to the previous custodian. It led him, however, to believe and
proclaim in terms of certitude that Saint-Martin had himself initiated M. de
Chaptal and to establish or reconstitute L'Ordre Martintiste in 1884. (1a)
Between 1887 and 1890 he produced Rituals for the Order, arranged in three
Degrees, which I have praised on several occasions for their sincerity,
simplicity and reserve in respect of claims. They were termed (1) Associate,
(2) Initiated Martinist, and (3) Initiator, the lastes implied by its title -
conveying a licence for the propagation of the Order by all who had attained
this its highest rank. Every person who held the Third Degree could thus
constitute a new centre. The mode adopted was usually that which is known
technically as "communication," that is to say, personally and not in Lodge or
Temple. To my certain knowledge reception was arranged even by post. It is
obvious that after this manner a vast membership could be secured in a very
short space, assuming any reasonable zeal among the workers and something
colourable or attractive on which they could act. Moreover, there were no fees
of any kind. There is no question that L'Ordre Martiniste spread rapidly in
France, and in addition to the delegates constituted automatically by the
Third Degree there were Lodges in various towns. There was membership also in
other countries, England itself not excepted, while the Order was specially
successful in North and South America. We hear also of propagation in Egypt
and even Asia.

In 1891 a Supreme Council was constituted at Paris and ruled the whole Order.
It became a centre also for numerous collateral interests, all carefully
organised, including esoteric groups and Faculties of Science and Philosophy,
which held examinations apparently and granted degrees at their value. Papus
was an indefatigable worker, and before the century was out it must be
acknowledged that he was at the head of a movement which may be almost called
colossal in respect of its magnitude. The reasons are not far to seek: it was
a form of initiation and it made no claim on Masonry; it receded both sexes;
it had a distinct religious side, apart from dogmata and - outside all
sectarianism it was in some sense a Christian thing. As such, it must have
appealed to multitudes in France who had lost faith in the Latin Church and
yet had spiritual interests. Moreover, it carried the seals and talismans of
occult sciences, which it claimed' to teach and also to reconcile with the
regnant science of the day. As such, its apparent justifications, if not its
warrants, were in Spiritism, Psychical Research, the Schools of Nancy and
Salpetriere not to speak of the less recognized though not less momentous
school of Animal Magnetism. But having offered this appreciation I have
virtually set L'Ordre Martiniste at the poles asunder from Saint- Martin the
mystic. In late and early writings Papus affirmed continually that when the
disciple of Pasqually followed his own path, having left that of his Master,
he not only established a Masonic Rite, as others had said previously, but
also an Order of his own which spread even into Russia. Now, has so-called
evidences are out of court in every case. I have examined them long since and
set them utterly aside: there is no need to retrace the ground. The Masonic
historians were blundering over terms and titles when they foisted a Rite on
Saint-Martin, and Papus was reading in a glass of vision whence saw the mystic
at the head of an Order propagated like his own. I leave it at this, though it
is difficult to understand how he could have deceived himself. He has not
escaped criticism of a rougher kind, but to me it seems that he had a
constitutional incapacity for pronouncing validly on questions of evidences
and that anything passed for proof in respect of has own bias.

The fact remains that in 1899 or thereabouts L'Ordre Martiniste may be said to
have reached its zenith, but it had sown, I think, already the seeds of its
own destruction. It had begun to encroach on the Masonic field, and was
approaching perilously the position of an unauthorised aspect of the Craft.
Practically the entire branch of the Order in North America, extending to
thousands, broke away from the Supreme Council at Paris and reincorporated
independently on this account alone. A few only continued under the old
obedience, among others the novelist Margaret B. Peeke, who was rewarded by
Papus with the Grade of Rose Crois. (1a) There are no statistics before me,
but it seems certain that in France - where Freemasonry, such as it is, must
be called exceedingly strong the course taken could have been scarcely less
than disastrous; yet it was not amended in consequence. The years went on, and
I think that L'Initiation, an official Martinist publication, came to an end
before the War. But the Great War came, which broke up everything belonging to
occult interests of the organised kind. The Grand Master Papus died in the
course of it, in the heroism of a physician's service. The peace of Versailles
was at last signed, and at no long time thereafter the old interests began to
lift up their heads: it seemed also as if the relased tension itself gave
birth automatically to new adventures by the score in thought and dream.
Occultism in Paris was characterized by activities of every kind - new
movements, new associations, new periodicals, including many official organs
for one or another dedication, but most of them mushroom growths. We can
imagine that L'Ordre Martiniste did not remain in abeyance, but it seems now a
shadow of its former self, is split up by rival obediences and has entered
into union with decried Masonic Rites. Whether it will emerge into clearer
light no one remote from the centre can dare to say, but to all appearance at
Ieast its time is over. Once at the head of most French movements of the
occult kind, it is now but one of a score; and I do not know in what sense the
gracious spirit of Saint-Martin can be said to abide therein. If ever a time
shall come when those who move in its circle and those who rule at its centre
will have realized that he left for ever the occult and Masonic sanctuaries
for the Church Mystic of Christian Theosophy, they may find his directing
light shining towards the end of true Mysticism; but in the Orients of Memphis
never, and never in those of Mizraim, or in any substituted form of
Freemasonry which is without God in the world. Meanwhile I tend to believe
that men and women of spiritual mind in France, who are not under the
obedience of Rome, will remember Saint-Martin as one who after his own manner
belongs to that great chain which began in the Christian world with Dionysius
the Areopagite and added link to link through all the ages subsequent.